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Policy

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​​The ECR Group is centre-right and Euro-realist. We believe in the need for realism in our way of functioning and in our output. This means spending responsibly and efficiently, especially given the economic difficulties we are facing. It also means ensuring that the legislation we produce in the EU is responding to and remedying a challenge faced on the ground.

Our principles

Greater localism in the EU decision-making process, to be pursued through:

Advocating the exercise of power at the lowest practicable level - by the individual where possible and by local or national authorities in preference to supranational bodies and advocating that EU decisions do not exceed the level of intervention necessary;

Use of territorial impact assessments for current and future EU legislation.

Greater ​euro-realism, to be pursued through:​​​

A decentralised system of governance that respects the sovereignty of EU Member States;​

Respect for the divergences among EU Member States.

An
​EU growth and jobs strategy based on free enterprise:

Removal of bottlenecks that could restrict growth and make it more difficult for small and medium sized enterprises to be set up or could lead to them shutting down; promotion of the principle of better regulation as one of the vital interests for local and regional authorities and SMEs;

EU investment that ensures a fair treatment of all Member States, encourages innovative funding methods, takes into account the important accumulative impact of small and medium sized towns and cities, is user-friendly with the right amount of checks and balances and is disaster resilient as well as being channelled into promising technologies.

Cost-efficient and
modern public services:

Full, timely and correct transposition of EU regulation and the setting up of centres of knowledge to assist in this process;

The use of digital governance, e-government, e-services and digital literacy to attain efficient public services.-friendly with the right amount of checks and balances and is disaster resilient as well as being channelled into promising technologies.

Committee of the Regions position papers prepared under the leadership of our members